Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., November 5th, 2003
- Sudhian Media recently looked at the new ABIT SFF PC, the DigiDice™.
Read the details:
ABIT, a well known and respected manufacturer of enthusiast motherboards,
has released their first Small Form Factor system, and to their credit,
it's anything but "just another (SFF)...PC".
 If
you're an enthusiast, you're sure to have heard of ABIT; however, up till
now it's more likely in the context of standard desktop motherboards.
Having carved out a significant chunk of the high-end desktop market,
ABIT has decided to leverage their reputation and tackle…(other SFF PC
manufactures)…in the rapidly growing SFF barebones systems space.
Your first impression, like ours, may be that this system looks
more like an HTPC (Home Theater PC) than a mainstream desktop. In fact,
the barebones system includes an IR remote, case-mounted LCD screen, 6-in-1
media card reader, and a "stereo-style" volume controller. Definitely
hallmarks of a Home Theater PC setup. But on the inside, you'll find an
Intel i865G based motherboard featuring aggressive overclocking features,
dual channel DDR, ABIT's own version of PAT (Performance Acceleration
Technology), as well as room for two 5.25" optical drives and a few
other surprises.
 Hats
off to ABIT for not creating a…(SFF PC)…clone and instead going for something
a bit different. As you'll soon see, the DigiDice™ brings together some
of the best features of…(other SFF PCs)…while tossing in a few extra bells
and whistles that you won't find on any other existing SFF system.
This system comes loaded with accessories including a rugged
carrying bag, infrared remote control, an assortment of cables and fans,
and even an essential oils kit. More on that last item later. In the meantime,
ABIT has curiously left out a Serial-ATA cable as well as the necessary
screws to affix your internal drives into the system.
  The
DigiDice™'s power button is actually the large jog-style volume knob on
the front of the system. Pushing the knob inward turns the system on,
similar to a standard power button. Jogging the knob to the left and right
during boot however will allow you to easily adjust the CPU FSB to "5
gears" of overclocking (0 to 25% FSB increase). Once your system
has booted however, the knob switches over to a volume adjustment. When
the system is on, you'll notice the power/volume knob is surrounded by
an integrated blue light.
The fan/air duct combination actually sits outside of the DigiDice™'s
case, pulling air from within the system, through a small grill, and then
guided by the duct, pushes this hot air through the external CPU heatsink.
Sounds complicated, but it really isn't. Take a look at this picture which
should help.
Having air constantly running through the external heatsink seems
to work fairly well. In our testing with the system fully loaded, the
external heatsink was warm to the touch, but never hot enough to burn.
The DigiDice™'s Bios includes all the standard options and features
one would expect from a Springdale based chipset, plus several specialty
overclocking options and even a few extra bells and whistles managed via
what ABIT calls their "Bios SoftMenu".
…the Bios will throttle fan speed based on CPU temperature to
attempt and find the best combination of cool temperatures and low noise
output. We'll see later how well this system actually works.
 Finally,
you'll find one option in the Bios you may not be familiar with, that
is, unless you own an Intel i865 based ABIT desktop motherboard. The DigiDice™'s
Bios features what ABIT calls "Game Accelerator". The rumors
are that this is nothing more than a backdoor to enable Intel's PAT (Performance
Acceleration Technology) on the Springdale chipset's Northbridge. PAT
is supposedly only available on i875 based chipsets, but it turns out
that the i865 and i875 chipsets are the same chip, with one just rated
to run at a higher internal clock speed. PAT enables this clock speed
acceleration.
Included on the DigiDice™ Driver CD are WinDVD for DVD video
viewing, WinRip for audio playback/recording, as well as CloneCD and the
ABIT Manager Software. The front hotkey buttons appear to be hardcoded
through ABIT Manager to provide access to WinDVD, WinRip, and CloneCD.
Photo viewing is provided through Windows XP natively.
This hardcoding also applies to the ABIT remote control, which
actually has "WinDVD" and "WinRip" buttons. ABIT has
confirmed that the remote control, LCD screen, and hotkeys are not user
programmable, and cannot at this time be accessed by any software other
than through ABIT Manager.
ABIT Manager also provides a Windows-based GUI in addition to
controlling your integrated LCD.
As an enthusiast system, it certainly performs well and has ample
overclocking capabilities. Marry that with low noise levels and impressive
CPU temperatures, and you've got one interesting and unique small form
factor box.
All in all, the DigiDice™ surprised us in terms of its low noise
output and impressive performance. The dual 5.25" drive bay is a
nice feature, easy overclocking is convenient, and the external LCD screen
and power/volume knob certainly makes the DigiDice™ look more like a stereo
than a PC.
In the end, it all comes down to what you deem important in your
system, but if you're looking for an SFF with top notch performance coupled
with the styling of a home stereo system, the DigiDice™ may just be your
best bet. And hey, it smells good too.
To read the full review go here: http://www.sfftech.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=455
For more on ABIT and other ABIT products please go here: http://www.abit.com.tw
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